Blooper: The Ever Growing Number of Youngblood Brothers

Most everyone is familiar with the famous Youngblood brothers - Jay, Mark, and Chris.

Greenville SC 5/14/79

However, we learned from an earlier blooper in the Charlotte Observer for the 9/19/81 show that there must have been a fourth Youngblood brother named JOEL.

But had we been paying attention two years earlier, a result in the Greenville News for a 5/14/79 card (at right) would have alerted us to yet another Youngblood brother - JERRY Youngblood.

That makes five Youngblood brothers and counting!

And then of course, there is the always intimidating, if not diminutive, MOUSE Morowski. Wonder if he is any kin to the big man Moose Morowski?

And just who is this "LYNN" Denton - - - Len Denton's sister??

And after posting this blooper, we received this great observation in an email to the Gateway:

In viewing this latest newspaper blooper, I caught that apparently, this "Jerry" Youngblood whipped a wrestler named "Mr. X I" So, was he the eleventh masked wrestler in his family or something like that? Or the first Mr. X?

Charlie G.


More bloopers to come. (See a list of all our bloopers so far.)

Hulk Hogan Joins Ric Flair on WOOOO! Nation

Ric Flair and Conrad Thompson on WOOOOO! Nation

'The Incredible" Hulk Hogan is Ric's guest this week on the 23rd episode of WOOOO! Nation!

From the WOOOO! Nation website:

Ric and Conrad welcome one of the greatest wrestliers of all time, Hulk Hogan. Hear stories from Ric and Hulk's storied past.

Add a little Flair to your life by joining the Nature Boy every week as he talks pro wrestling, sports, tells stories like only he can, and interviews his celebrity friends. No topic is off limits for Flair during his weekly CBS podcast. Come join WOOOOO! Nation!

Ric Flair and Conrad Thompson are on "WOOOOO! Nation" right now! Check it out via iTunes or directly download from the WOOOOO! Nation page at the PLAY.IT website.

Reflections from Roddy Piper

Our friend George Pantas had a chance to interview Roddy Piper when he appeared on a show with his group in the Norfolk area. It was included in his weekly internet article for the Norfolk Navy Flagship. There was some great Mid-Atlantic content and some real respect for those that helped him here, particularly the Andersons and Ric Flair.

Pantas did a four-week tribute to Piper, which you can find linked from here. We post the interview portion here with his permission. (Yiorgo is a "working name.") - - -



INTERVIEW WITH RODDY PIPER

Yiorgo: Tell us about your first time with the WWF/WWE.

Roddy Piper: It was beyond cruel. I was wrestling in the (Grand) Olympic Auditorium (Los Angeles). I was 19-20 years old, and I get a call from Vince, Sr. (McMahon). They want to see me in Madison Square Garden. They fly me first class ... a limo picks me up at airport and we go to the Garden.

First guy I saw was Captain Lou Albano. He pinches my cheek and says, “Pisan, we’ve been watching ... you’re too good, we don’t want you here.” What a nice guy! “Classy” Freddie Blassie comes up, he hits me with his cane and says, “You pencil neck geek ... we’ve been watching you, we don’t want you here.” It was tough love. It did not mean anything to me.

Roddy Piper with George "Yiorgo" Pantas

I was in the third or fourth match. Now, a bagpipe is a wooden instrument and you have to tune it – and I did. I went out and I said to basically a crowd of 24,000, “I’d like for you to stand up for the Scottish national anthem.” I went to play the bagpipes and nothing came out. Now, when I was 14, I came in fifth in the world, playing the pipes. When I went to the back, I was heart broken. I didn’t understand it then, but ... To be continued.Roddy Piper: When they said they did not want me, they meant it! Blassie had put six feet of toilet paper up the chanter so it would not work. It was so cruel.

I just saw Vince a week ago (Ed. Note: December 2011) and he brought up that whole incident again. Vince just put his head down. It was so cruel! I never trusted them, and when I came back the second time, I had a tremendous amount of confidence that nobody could hurt me. Before, I came in like Bambi, the second time, I came in like a lion. I was hungry. Even at the first WrestleMania, they tried to downplay me and I would not have it. They did not realize the importance of the heel.

5 Teams That Never Held the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles (But Should Have) - #3

by Dick Bourne and David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

We continue our countdown of the 5 teams that competed in the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling area that never held the Mid-Atlantic tag team championships - - but should have. For our explanation of the process and our thinking behind this countdown, visit the original page here.

We've selected five teams that we felt fit that mold and should have been recognized or rewarded by the booker or the promotion with the Mid-Atlantic tag team championships, but for whatever reason were never given that shot.

We are going to spotlight those five teams over the next few weeks, counting down to the number one team we thought should have been given that championship - - but wasn't.

The past two weeks, we selected teams for #5 and #4 in the countdown that were brother teams. This week we make it three brother teams in a row.


NUMBER THREE: Ted and Jerry Oates (1978)

Ted and Jerry Oates

DB: This brother team from Columbus, GA seemed like a natural for tag team championship gold in the Mid-Atlantic area. Ted actually stayed around longer than Jerry. They were an outstanding combination, though a bit lackluster on the stick. But that didn't hurt other combinations from being given a run with the Mid-Atlantic tag straps, especially on into the early 1980s. To the contrary; these titles were the perfect vehicle to elevate a solid tag team that lacked in other areas. The Oates brothers would have made great Mid-Atlantic team champions and would have given us some solid championship matches in semi-main events. I liked Jerry's style in particular; he always reminded me of Terry Funk, and was clearly influenced by him. Jerry even used the spinning toe hold as his finisher.

DC: The "Oates Brothers" formed an impressive duo in the Mid-Atlantic area in the summer of 1978, and they teamed in the area through early 1979. Ted and Jerry were given a limited push by the promotion, and were a smooth and steady team in the ring. While not dynamic by any means on promos, they could hold their own. On sheer wrestling ability and continuity as a team, the Oates' would have benefited the territory with a run as Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions.


Next time: We look at a dynamic young team that shocked the world when they toppled the world tag team champs on television. Join us in a few days when we take a look at team #2 in our countdown.

The countdown so far:

1. 

2.

3. Ted and Jerry Oates

4. Roberto and Manuel Soto (El Rayo)

5. Randy and Lanny Poffo

Georgia Learns of New World Tag Champs ... Before The Titles Changes Hands

PART FOUR

by Dick Bourne and Mark Eastridge
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It is certainly one of the most fascinating cases of a kayfabe violation in the territory wrestling days that you can imagine.

Our ongoing series about the 1977 Mid-Atlantic Wrestling/Georgia Wrestling talent exchange continues with this look at a big card of wrestling at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, GA on May 9, 1977.

As we've described earlier in this series, Augusta was ground zero for some of the most interesting "mixed cards" of Mid-Atlantic and Georgia Championship Wrestling. The week before on the May 2nd card, all of the challengers for all three Georgia championships were from the Mid-Atlantic territory. So a week later, Augusta gets another treat: Mid-Atlantic area championships go on the line against Georgia challengers in Augusta.


UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: 
BLACKJACK MULLIGAN vs. MR. WRESTLING II

Blackjack Mulligan brought his United States Heavyweight championship to Georgia for this one night to defend against Mr. Wrestling II, one of the most popular stars ever in the Georgia territory. As we discussed earlier in Part Two of this series, Mulligan was a big part of the talent exchange in defending the U.S. title on several occasions against Georgia's Thunderbolt Patterson when T-bolt made several visits to the Mid-Atlantic area over the spring of 1977.


NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: 
GENE AND OLE ANDERSON vs. DINO BRAVO AND "MR. WRESTLING" TIM WOODS

The other main event that night saw the new NWA world tag team champions Gene and Ole Anderson, bringing those tag team titles back to Georgia from the Mid-Atlantic area, and defending their newly won belts against the mixed Mid-Atlantic/Georgia combination of visiting Dino Bravo and "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods.

The Wilmington Plane Crash

40 YEARS AGO TODAY
OCTOBER 4, 1975

Promoter, 3 Wrestlers Injured in Plane Crash
Charlotte Observer

by Mary Bishop Lacy and Roger Mikeal

WILMINGTON - Charlotte promoter David F. Crockett and three Charlotte based professional wrestlers were among six persons injured Saturday evening when their plant crashed near Wilmington.

Crockett, 29, of 732 E. Park Ave. was reported in good condition late Saturday might at New Hanover Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. Also in good condition were wrestler Richard Fliehr, 24, known professionally as Ric Flair, and George Burrell Woodin, 41, listed by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department as a promoter.

Wrestlers Robert Bruggers, 31, and Johnny Valentine, 47, were reported by a hospital spokesman to be in serious condition.

The Pilot of the plane, Joseph Michael Farkas, 28, was listed in critical condition and was undergoing surgery for head injuries at the hospital late Saturday night. The hospital spokesman said Farkas' identification bore addresses in Monroe, Charlotte, and Connecticut.

Hospital officials refused to give details on the other men's injuries. The six men reportedly left Charlotte in the yellow and white Cessna 310 at 5:30 p.m. for the Saturday night wrestling matches at Wilmington's Legion Stadium. Who owned the plane and where it took off couldn’t be learned immediately.

About 6:25 PM when the plane was a bout a mile west of the Wilmington Airport and was approaching a runway, Farkas radioed the control tower that the one of his engines had stopped, according to Deputy Sheriff E. D. Long.

Cutting across treetops and snagging a wing on a utility pole, the plane crashed about a half a mile from the airport along a railroad embankment and near a state prison camp according to the sheriff’s and state highway patrol reports.Several of the crash victims were thrown from the plane, and one was pinned between seats inside according to a spokesman for Ogden Rescue Squad, which carried the men to the hospital.

Crockett is an official of Jim Crockett Promotions, a Charlotte based enterprise that specializes in sports promotions.

Valentine considered one of the top professional wrestlers in the country has wrestled in a number of foreign countries including Japan and Australia. Known as a lover of opera and fine cuisine, Valentine has been a professional wrestler for 25 years.

Flair Is a flamboyant blonde wrestler who has been wrestling in the Charlotte area about 2½ years. He is a native of Minnesota and had been scheduled to meet Ken Patera in a wrestling match at Charlotte’s Park Center Monday night.

Bruggers, also from Minnesota played with Miami Dolphins football team as a linebacker for several years around 1970. He began wrestling in Charlotte about two years ago.


On Site in Wilmington:
A First Hand Account of How Things Were Handled at Legion Stadium In Wilmington the Night of the Crash
by Shawn Hudson
Special for the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, October 2002

I was in Legion Stadium the night the plane crashed. I wish I could remember it all but I am not as young as I used to be.

Football Visits Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

With the 2015 National Football League season in full swing now, it reminds me of an interesting “contest” involving football that appeared nearly forty-one years ago on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television. Yes, in November of 1974, just a few weeks before a one hit wonder named Clint Longley would break the Washington Redskins’ heart on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas (it still haunts me George South!), “football” visited Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling!

At the time, the top former professional football player on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling roster was none other than “Chief” Wahoo McDaniel. Wahoo was still a relative newcomer to the Mid-Atlantic area in November of 1974, and according to him, had only been out of professional football for about four years at that juncture. While Wahoo played pro football over a number of years with several teams as a linebacker, his most noteworthy stint on the gridiron occurred in the mid 1960’s when he and flamboyant quarterback Joe Namath were both on the roster of the New York Jets.

In what appeared to be an innocuous television match pairing Sonny King and Wahoo McDaniel as tag team partners against Chuck O’Connor and Mike Paidousis, the masked Super Destroyer came to the ring to decry the lack of competition in the territory. The Destroyer went on to say that the competition had gotten so slack and that nobody he wrestled in Jim Crockett Promotions had any kind of reputation, that he might be forced to stop putting up his mask as a stipulation to be removed if he lost a bout by pinfall or submission. Wahoo listened to as much as he could stand, but finally had enough of the Super Destroyer’s mouth. McDaniel said he came to the Mid-Atlantic area looking for competition, and if the masked man wanted some competition, he didn’t need to look any further than the six foot two and 265 pound Indian standing before him.

The Super Destroyer didn’t care for Wahoo’s response, and used it as an excuse to bring Wahoo’s football background into the conversation. The Super D. dismissively told Wahoo that in the 1960’s the Chief’s partner Sonny King shinned Wahoo’s shoes so Wahoo could be a well dressed chauffer as according to the Destroyer, McDaniel drove Joe Namath around New York City in Namath’s luxury limousine. Wahoo angrily retorted to the masked man, “What team did you ever play for.” Rather than answer the question, the Destroyer instead told Wahoo that he had a lot of respect for Joe Namath, and as to where Wahoo measured up to Joe Namath’s reputation, the masked man said that Wahoo came up only about a quarter inch off of the ground.

Wahoo now seemed determined to bring the Super Destroyer into his world of football. The big Chief remarked that the Destroyer was a “big boy,” but it took more than being a big boy to be a good football player. And if the Destroyer thought he was so tough, he could make an easy $500 by going through Wahoo to get the money. The Super D. said he was a six foot five and 280 pound human specimen of muscle, and he was delighted for Wahoo to put up something and that he didn’t have to put his mask up for a change. In fact, the masked man said if he couldn’t get through Wahoo for the $500 that he would give McDaniel an extra $500!

So the following week on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV show, that aired in many markets on November 9, 1974, “football” came to the WRAL studios in Raleigh, North Carolina. Joe Murnick introduced this contest in the ring as a very special event…a five minute football match! The Super Destroyer said that “Wahoo was supposed to be a great football player; maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t…but let him prove it some way.” And indeed, the big Indian came up with an ingenious way to do this within the confines of a professional wrestling ring! Wahoo taped five $100 bills to a ring post and would go to the ring post diagonally across the ring, get into a football stance and would attempt for five minutes to keep the Destroyer from reaching the $500.

The Super Destroyer was confident Wahoo was going to lose an easy $500, and commented that “little boys play football, and big boys wrestle.” The masked man vowed to embarrass Wahoo in front of his football fans and his wrestling fans. As it turned out, it would be the Super Destroyer who was embarrassed! While Wahoo did start out the five minute challenge in a three point football stance, the popular Indian immediately used quite a few wrestling maneuvers to keep the masked giant at bay. The five minutes of TV time went by rapidly, with the Destroyer by the end being tantalizingly close to grabbing the money taped to the ring post. However, with a series of vicious chops and elbows that found their mark, and by surviving a short stay in the Destroyer’s claw hold, McDaniel withstood the five minute time limit and the Super Destroyer never got his hands on the cash! But the masked man got SOOOO close, and this setback surely left him angry, frustrated and probably an even more dangerous opponent in the future.

While this “football match” was more of a spectacle for the entertainment of the television fans in the Mid-Atlantic area, it did expose the Super Destroyer as a beatable commodity. For nearly a year, the Destroyer had dominated all Mid-Atlantic opponents with pinfall or submission wins, with an occasional disqualification result thrown in. After making jest about Wahoo on the football field, the Super Destroyer learned the hard way in front of a couple of million TV viewers that Wahoo was no joke, either as a wrestler or a football player. When football visited Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in this most unique way in November of 1974, the Super Destroyer left the ring with his reputation taking its first serious hit in Jim Crockett Promotions, while the athletic legend of the great Wahoo McDaniel grew even larger.

David Chappell

September 2015

The Eagle Pass Biographies (Part One)

by Blackjack Mulligan
As told to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Editor's Note: The Eagle Pass Biographies take a humorous look at those legendary west Texas characters from the fertile mind and imagination of Blackjack Mulligan. All of these names appeared in his TV promos back in the 1970s and 1980s. Part fact, part fiction. True lies and alibis.

Part One: Uncle Reba Joe and Sara Jo Puckett.
Part Two: Spider Grip and Sheriff Slim Gabriel
Part Three: Scrap Iron Adams, Luther Daniels, Cousin Luke Mulligan, and many more!


UNCLE REBA JOE

Uncle Reba Joe could best be described as wild as the west Texas wind! If one has ever seen the movie "Hud" with Paul Newman, then you know my Uncle Reba Joe.

He was raised on a ranch in Cross Plains, Texas in Callahan County Bright red hair, wore a flowery western shirt with the sleeves half rolled up, and a pair of the fanciest western boots you ever seen called Apache Flower. Had his pants tucked in the boots and a large silver buckle he won at the Concho County rodeo for bull ridin'. He was always driving an old Cadillac convertible with the top down come rain or shine. Always had 2 or 3 senoritas with him. He loved Jack Daniels, women, and fightin' - not sure in which order, didn't seem to matter!

Well Uncle Reba Joe was the coolest thing I had ever seen and he was (unfortunately) my hero. He took me to Mexico with him one weekend and there in Rosie's Cantina I fell in love with a 50 year old senorita and wanted to marry her. I was 13. Uncle Reba Joe had to drag me outta there. He assured me there would be others. Not that I knew what to do!

We had a large family and every year Uncle Reba Joe and Uncle Red would get in a fight at our family reunion. Uncle Reba Joe would promise every year no drinkin' or womanizing, and Uncle Red, Christian man he was, burly 6'5'' medal of honor winner in World War II,  didn't stand for no B.S.! Well every year Uncle Reba Joe would get to drinkin' and messin' round with all the women folk and call out Uncle Red. And every year Uncle Red would K.O. Uncle Reba Joe and we would have to carry him to his Cadillac! My Hero!!


SARA JO PUCKETT

Sara Jo Puckett was voted the Concho County Rodeo Queen and from that moment on, fame and fortune would lead the path to wealth and eventually back to running her own saloon in Eagle Pass, Texas. I actually found her there while working on a ranch in Concho County during summer break. She accompanied me back to Odessa and went to work at the Ace O' Clubs.  I had to return to school, but our lives crossed paths many times throughout the years.


She was a Dolly Parton look-alike, an unbelievable beauty.  Down through the years she would call me, and to the rescue Blackjack would come, rescuing her from gamblers, bums, sheriffs, and rift raft! As the years passed, her beauty started to fade and Blackjack decided to immortalize her in promos and interviews.  She took on a few pounds over the years, but the beauty was still there. I actually took her to Madison Square Garden and few other places so she could go home and have braggin' rights!

Never a prettier woman; she could ride a bull, chew tobacco, drink whiskey, back you up in a fight, and all the things a good woman does! WOW, what a woman!

Coming up next time on Part Two of the Eagle Pass Biographies: Spider Grip and Sheriff Slim Gabriel!

The Eagle Pass Biographies were passed along from B.J. Windham to Dick Bourne in emails and phone conversations in October and November of 2006. 
Originally posted on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in 2006.

Copyright  © Robert Windham / Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Finding Gold in a Dallas Cowboys Book

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

George South has a knack for finding the most obscure references to wrestling in just about any book he picks up. It's uncanny. The best example of this was probably the time he found a book in a used bookstore for $1.00 that talked about the first season of the NFL Carolina Panthers in Charlotte. In that book, which had been tucked away in the back of this old bookstore, covered in dust, probably never to be read again, George finds a picture of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling legend Johnny Weaver when he was a deputy sheriff for the Mecklenburg Sheriff's Department. Johnny was helping with crowd control in security at a Panthers game.

What were the odds? Only George could find that! There are countless other examples, too. There have been references to Wahoo McDaniel in a New York Jets football history book, more things like that.

The most recent example was in the book "Legends of the Dallas Cowboys" by Cody Monk, which was a collection of stories and memories about the great legends in Dallas Cowboys history.

I had given this book to George for his birthday. We were meeting at a local Hickory Tavern restaurant for dinner and to watch the Cowboys play the Giants the opening weekend of the 2015 season on Sunday Night Football. I even told him when he was first looking through it, "I bet you anything you will find some reference to wrestling in there."

I figured it would be perhaps a reference to one of the old-timer players having been a wrestler at some point. A lot of professional football players were part-time pro wrestlers back in the day before the NFL and AFL players made a great deal of money. Some, like Wahoo McDaniel, made more money in a summer of pro wrestling than in an entire season of football.

So about a week later George sends me a text with a photo attached of a passage in the book about Kerry Von Erich winning the NWA world title from Ric Flair at Texas Stadium in 1984.

Well, I'll be darned, he did it again!

The passage was in a section of the book devoted to memories about the old Texas Stadium in Irving, TX that was home to the Cowboys until a few years ago when they moved into the new AT&T Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX.

Once again, George had found wrestling gold in a random book. And I can just about guarantee you it will happen again at some point down the road.

The following is an except from the "Texas Stadium" chapter in "Legends of the Dallas Cowboys" by Cody Monk, pg. 187:

"Non-football events: In September 1971, Texas Stadium opened its doors with a 10-day revival from noted pastor Billy Graham. Johnny and June Cash performed and future President and First Lady Laura and George W. Bush attended. The event was simply the first of a litany of major events. In 1972 and then from 1984-88, Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling, featuring the legendary Von Erich family, held its annual "Parade of Champions" shows at Texas Stadium. The most famous match happened on May 6, 1984, when Kerry Von Erich beat "Nature Boy" Ric Flair for the NWA title in front of over 50,000 fans, only months after Kerry's brother, David Von Erich, died in Tokyo. On the music side, the Jackson Five, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Metallica, Alabama, and Madonna all played at Texas Stadium...."

George and I enjoyed a big plate of wings, thanks to our friend Doug Joyner who had given George a gift card for his birthday. It wound up being a great night as quarterback Tony Romo led the Cowboys down the field in the final minute of the game and threw the winning touchdown pass to my old Tennessee favorite Jason Witten. Dallas defeated the New York football Giants 27-26.

How 'bout them Cowboys?

Sadly, I wasn't with George to celebrate. I had left at the end of the 3rd quarter because of the long trip home late on a Sunday night. I enjoyed listening to the voice of the great Verne Lundquist (filling in for the usual voice of the Dallas Cowboys Brad Sham) make the call of that final drive on XM satellite radio. As Romo threw that winning touchdown, I could only imagine George, being one of only a few people left in the restaurant at midnight, running around like NC State Coach Jim Valvano after winning the 1983 NCAA national basketball championship - - looking for someone to hug.

* * * * *

Originally published on GeorgeSouth.com

Traffic Jams & Friendships

by Carroll Hall
All Star Championship Wrestling

Saturday March 12, 1983 was the 29th birthday of my brother Kenneth and also the date of the infamous cage match in Greensboro, NC: Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle defending their world tag team championships against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. Originally I had a prior commitment for that night but when those plans changed, I surpised my brother by taking him to the show in Greensboro. Up to that point in time we had always bought our tickets at the door because with our work schedules, it was generally on the day of an event before we could be sure we could go. This would be the first time we were turned away from a show since we started attending arena shows in May 1965.

We did not make it too far from where we exited I-40 when the traffic came to a crawl. When we finally made it to the Coliseum entrance, I rolled down the window and a police officer asked if we already had tickets. When I said no, he replied all the tickets were gone. We kept going at a crawl until we finally made it back to I-40 West. By the time we got through the traffic jam and got back home it was between 11 and 11:30 which was not far off of the time we normally got home from a show in Greensboro. This would be the last time we would ever travel to Greensboro to see wrestling. We were lucky enough to see Steamboat/Younglood vs. Slaughter/ Kernodle in three Greenboro matches prior to this on October 23, November 6 and December 26 in 1982.

Fast foward to Friday March 12, 2004. I had just recently joined my first wrestling message board. On this date I sent a PM (private message) to another member who was participating in a thread about that fabled cage match. That member turned out to be Dick Bourne of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Two days later, on Sunday March 14, 2004 in the late afternoon, Dick Bourne visited me at my home. As it turns out we live in the same area but had never met. That was the beginning of a friendship that I treasure more than simple words can describe.